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I have a couple of front der's that I'm going to try to play around with. I have a DA, Centaur, and a Record. The record and the DA both weigh in right at about 100g (clamp on style) and the Centaur is around 114g. I figure I will practice up on the Centaur first. I need to get my hands on a vice and a few more heads for my dremill and then I plan on going to town. If I can pull 20-30g out of it between milling and some different bolts then I'll be pretty happy. If I can't get down to around 80g then I will find myself a braze on style fd, get a Parlee clamp and tune the new fd instead. But the goal will be to end up with a sub 70g fd when it is all said and done. The rear will be a bit of a different story and I'll leave that for another day.

I am definitely fascinated with the idea of doing my own tuning and pretty frickn excited about it (I think my seat project really got me started down this road). Sure I can swap some bolts here and there and even pick up some parts of the shelf that are lighter and I probably will do that. But at some point, I'll have to start tuning them as well. So for me, right now it is about swaping out some of the heavier parts for lighter ones and then the tinkering will begin. In the mean time, I plan on reading threads such as this and taking notes on what is possible.

So WallE, weeracerweenie, don't think that these threads are going unnoticed. My skill is lacking but you guys are an inspiration! I once thought it was about replacing parts with lighter ones but I now see that there is so much still left on the table!

Thanks 1spd, post photos of your work obviously but apart from that go hard. I wouldn't suggest doing the spring tune unless your confident as I kinda broke mine doing it and then repaired / had to fix it from there. For alloy use a sandpaper like tip to remove quantity quick. Then use a finer hard tip and finally a polishing tip. Mini files also come in handy for small areas that are tricky Good luck

lechat: There's nothing wrong with using a dremel/drill and file,don't get me wrong.But that can limit what you can accomplish. With a lathe/mill you can go further.I've included a couple pics of an old school Suntour Supurbe stemthat was modded to 134.3 grams in 1987 or 88. The first version on a Cinelli 1A back in 85 or 86 worked well for 3/4 yr. but didn't stand up to the forces on a wind trainer with a locked fork. The front part of the bar clamp cracked at the thinnest part where the hole was milled. It had less meat in that area than the Superbe stem.There is a .689" dia hole milled through the length of the extension,which took out 51 grams. There is some milled away at the rear clampA ti and aluminum bar pinch bolt/nut.The quill was also shortened. Pic 3 shows a reamer I turned and groundout of chro-mo, to re-cut the taper in the end of the quill after shortening.Then the slots were re-milled. The reamer has been used on several quillstem mods over the years. Quill bolt was shortened and tapped.And a shorted lighter tapered plug was turned to finish off.

I just threw this into the pot to show what can be done when you havemore tools, that aren't really possible with a dremel.

Well, I don't have pics because I am at the office right now but I will only say that my first round of tuning on my Centaur FD resulted in a bit of an @$$ woopin and frustration. First off, I weighed the part to start with and took a picture. I then set out to work on the band clamp area first since it is the easiest to get to. After a while w/ one side close to being done, I threw it back on the scale to see what I had accomplished. NOT MUCH! I believe it was a wopping gram or two. Then I realized that something was touching the back of the scale throwing the weights off so now I don't know for sure what my starting weight was. So I pressed on and started playing with the other side. Quite honestly, it looks horrible! I have a lot of cleaning up to do and really do need to hit the whole thing with sand paper at this point.

This particular FD looks like there is a lot of material that can be removed but once you really start playing with it, there really isn't. Perhaps it has a bit to do with the design and a lot to do with my lack of skill and tools.

I barrowed a dremel kit from a buddy as well as a vice. But none of the attachments seemed to work for metal. The only thing that was working was a cutting wheel. Everything else either dulled out or just didn't put a dent in it. In the end, I spent a fair amount of time with my small file kit.

Right now I just feel defeated. The FD is not ruined but I barely put a dent in this damn thing. It looks aweful and there really is no way in hell that I'm going to post up pictures of it just yet as that would just be embarrassing. So by all means give me some more tips on doing this.

I will add, that even though I am somewhat frustrated, I was pretty much absorbed in the whole process and had a good time working on it and if anything learned what doesn't work! Time to go back to the drawing board and look at some other examples of FD tunes on here.

Lastly, I think WW should have a tuning competition. I think a single part should be selected and then members on the board all have to get the same part and work their magic on it with the goal being to see who can come up with the lightest version of it. I think this would show a few different approaches to the process and I'm sure we would see some varying results. It wouldn't have to be an expensive part mind you, maybe a cheaper front derailleur (not saying that because that is what I'm working on...only because they can be purchased used for pretty cheap and there are enough parts to play around with on it). The winner, well...you just get to be the winner but in reality we will all win because we will get to see what can be done to said part.

On a good note, my seat post sanding project came out awesome! Took 10 minutes and all the graphics are gone and since the post already had a matte finish it looks like it came that way!

I wouldn't turn down a mill if someone offered me one. It's just that the tuning I do is pretty much confined to refining modern parts. If i ever get around to grafting that open class mx 2 stroker engine to a lightened Ninja 250 frame, i'll need to kick my garage up a notch.'Til then, i'll focus on making some shifter clamp bands out of a section of a Thomson seatpost. Already using m6 ti bolts and a 13mm alloy brake nut.

Well here are a couple pics of the fd I have been working on. I think I have a solid 3.5 hours into it with alot of the work down by hand via files and sand paper though I did attack w/ the Dremel here and there to get off the larger portions of material. I think it still has a long way to go. It started out at 115g w/ all bolts. I ended up pulling the bolts of course and have two alumium replacement screws for the throw adjusters but will need to get a new ti clamp bolt and cable pinch bolt for it.

I was and to a degree still am frustrated with the over all weight of it though I have gotten it down to 99g (w/ no bolts on it) but the reality is that I have only shaved about 4-5g from my grinding thus far. I'm sure it doesn't help that I started with an over built fd but it has been fun practice none the less.

On a side note I stripped the clear coat on the bars and levers. I am quite bumbed over all. I was already irritated to be on Centaur levers since the prior owner can't seem to find the V2 records that were originally on the bike. Now when stripping them using the razor blad technique, I found that they are actually wrapped aluminum! How frickn cheesey is that? I basically scraped a little too far and hit aluminum. Then when i tried to drill it out to lighten them up a little bit I broke a bit trying to drill thru it! Just ridiculous!

1spd wrote:I was already irritated to be on Centaur levers since the prior owner can't seem to find the V2 records that were originally on the bike. Now when stripping them using the razor blad technique, I found that they are actually wrapped aluminum! How frickn cheesey is that? I basically scraped a little too far and hit aluminum. Then when i tried to drill it out to lighten them up a little bit I broke a bit trying to drill thru it! Just ridiculous!

Which generation of Centaur levers are these? I know it's the new hoods but which style of branding on the levers?

Paint is easy. Use a knife blade using the backwards forwards technique. It's easy and campy paint just chips off anyway.. I find making a guide out of card and taping it on is the easiest way to get a good looking finish.

1spdNeed a set of burr bits like this for working aluminum. For steel use aluminum oxide grinding bitsThe wheel shown is emory impregnated rubber. Great for finish work. pricey at $4/ea, but can get a 5 pack for ~ $10 (Amazon)